The pre-vetting commission announces on Monday 23 January the outcome of the assessment of four more candidates for membership of the CSM from among career judges. Two decisions to pass and two decisions not to pass the integrity assessment have been sent to the candidates concerned and to the institution responsible for organising the competition.

According to the Commission, Vasile Șchiopu, judge at the Ungheni Court and candidate to the CSM, and Sergiu Caraman, judge at the Criuleni Court and candidate to the CSM and to the College for the evaluation of the performance of judges, “meet the criteria of financial and ethical integrity” and thus pass the evaluation.

As for the candidates Sergiu Osoianu, judge at the Straseni Court, and Ecaterina Buzu, judge at the Orhei Court, the Commission decided that they “do not pass the evaluation”.

“All decisions were unanimously approved by the Commission members. If the candidates do not notify the Commission of their refusal to publish the decisions within 48 hours of their transmission, they will be published in full on the website of the CSM, the institution responsible for organising the competition, and on the Commission’s website www.vetting.md,” the statement said.

According to Article 14 para. 1) and 2) of the Law no. 26/2022 on some measures related to the selection of candidates for the position of member of the self-administrative bodies of judges and prosecutors, the decisions of the Commission may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, within 5 days of receipt, without prior procedure.

So far, 5 candidates for the CSM, out of the 28 career judges entered in the competition, have passed the Commission’s integrity assessment, 12 have been disqualified by failing the assessment and are not eligible to participate in the competition, and 11 candidates are awaiting the Commission’s decisions.

Ziarul de Garda has analysed the activity, wealth and integrity of each candidate and presents the most important information about the judges entered in the competition, who, in a first stage, will go through the integrity assessment procedure, in the context of the Pre-Vetting Law.

Vasile Șchiopu: Modest wealth and explanations of inherited assets

Vasile Șchiopu was president of the Ungheni Court until the beginning of 2021, when he was appointed to act as interim president of the court until it is completed in the manner established by law.

In 2021, the Plenum of the CSM designated the Ungheni and Balti courts as pilot model courts under the USAID Model Courts Project. Later, in an interview for expresul.md, he spoke about the workload and wondered “How can we talk about quality for such a large workload?”.

According to the declaration of wealth and personal interests for 2021, the magistrate, together with his wife, who works mostly in the public sector, being a doctor at the Ungheni Family Doctors’ Centre and at the Ungheni District Hospital, have owned, since 1992, a 146.7-square-metre residential house and another 85.9-square-metre real estate, estimated at about 163 thousand lei. At the same time, in 2019, the family came into possession of another dwelling house and two other real estates, whose total indicated value reaches approximately 15 thousand lei, assets obtained by inheritance contract. The Șchiopu family also owns, as of 2019, two urban lands with an area of 0.2916 ha and another land in other categories of land, which is in the civil circuit, of about 0.13 ha. Under movable assets, Vasile Șchiopu indicated a Honda CRV car, purchased in 2017 for 180 thousand lei.

Vasile Șchiopu about the assets inherited in 2019: “They are assets inherited by my wife, from my parents, after their death. The house is located on a plot of land, one of the real estate assets indicated is the land on which the house is located. Plus, across the road from the house is another piece of land. It is land of the house, but separated from the road, and is registered as separate real estate, respectively. It is an old house, built in the 1960s”.

Sergiu Caraman: He sued the CSM for not appointing him as vice-president of the court

Sergiu Caraman has been a magistrate since 2012 and has been working at the Criuleni Court since 2018.

In 2019, Caraman sued the CSM because in the competition for the position of vice-president of the Criuleni Court, held in July 2019, his opponent, Alexandru Motricala, was declared the winner. The court of first instance dismissed the application as unfounded, and subsequently the CSJ put an end to the case, declaring inadmissible the appeal filed by the magistrate.

Caraman is the judge who by a decision issued in January 2021 restored to office the socialist chairman of the Dubasari district, Grigore Filipov, who was previously suspended by a decision of the Dubasari district council, in which he was accused of several illegalities and incompetence. Last year, Caraman applied to be admitted to the bar.

According to the declaration of personal assets and interests for 2021, Caraman owns, as of 2019, an apartment of about 50 square meters with an indicated value of 493 thousand lei. In 2018, Caraman’s wife received from her parents a 150 square meter residential house with a cadastral value of 603 thousand lei. The dwelling, which is located in the town of Durlesti, was later returned. The Caramans also own an apartment in the town of Floresti, purchased in 2014 for 40 thousand lei, while the market value of the property is 145 thousand lei. The difference is justified by the magistrate by the condition of the property. Officially, the magistrate declares that he owns a Toyota Corolla car, manufactured in 1999, which he took possession of in 2018. Last year, the judge reported a total salary of 265 thousand lei. He declares debts of more than 1.3 million lei, having taken out three loans and a loan.

The judge owns shares and stakes in several American public companies, including Microsoft Corporation, Meta Platforms Inc, which owns and operates the social networking site Facebook, The Walt Disney Company, Intel Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation (a leading American company and aerospace manufacturer specialising in military, security and advanced technologies) and Alibaba Group Holding. Caraman declares debts of more than 1.3 million lei, after taking out three loans and a loan.

Sergiu Osoianu: Rejected, then promoted by President Dodon vs. “The President’s car crash” case

Sergiu Osoianu has been acting president of Straseni Court since April 2021, after four years as head of the court. He began his career in the field in 2008.

In January 2017, then-President Igor Dodon announced that the names of ten judges, including Osoianu, had been rejected for appointment to top court posts. Five months later, however, Dodon promoted him to the head of the court after he repeatedly applied for appointment.

Osoianu is the judge who handed down the sentence in which Dumitru Prepeliță, the driver of the truck that collided with President Igor Dodon’s limousine in September 2018, was found guilty of causing the accident, fined 20,000 lei and ordered to pay court costs of 5,240 lei.

In 2015, a complaint was registered against the judge regarding his actions, with the plaintiff accusing Osoianu of “naughty behaviour, picking up a phone number and having a phone call” during a court case. The complaint was rejected by the Judicial Inspection. The same fate befell a complaint against the judge filed in 2018.

In November 2020, the CSM decided to grant Osoianu post-factum a salary award on the occasion of the professional holiday “Jurist’s Day”, the proposal for the award having been submitted by the court’s secretariat.

In 2015, the Chisinau City Hall paid the magistrate more than one million lei following a lawsuit after the municipality refused to provide housing for his family.

According to his declaration of assets and personal interests for 2021, Osoianu has owned a 75.6-square-meter apartment at a preferential price since 2014, after he asked the CSM to be included in the list of magistrates in need of housing in Chisinau municipality. The declared value of the apartment is 520 thousand lei.

In 2019, the judge obtained free of charge, through a decision of the Strășeni City Council, a 0.07 ha plot of land in a suburb of Chisinau municipality, on which he was going to build a residential house. In 2019, however, he purchased a plot of land in a suburb of the capital and built a 160-square-metre residential house on it. Osoianu stated that the house would cost 800 thousand lei and the market value is 1.2 million lei. He justifies the difference by “the actual expenses incurred for carrying out the construction to 50% completion” and “the essential increase in prices of building materials in the 2nd half of 2021”.

Ecaterina Buzu: Apartment at preferential price and new car

Ecaterina Buzu has been a judge since 2012 and is currently working at the Orhei Court.

In October 2014, the Performance Appraisal College of Judges found that Buzu allegedly commits several violations while examining cases, such as “not paying special attention to the examination of each case, not showing enough ability to organize work time” or “violating deadlines for drafting court decisions”. The magistrate was therefore rated “insufficient” in the evaluation. The judge appealed to the CSJ, disagreeing with these findings, but the Supreme Court rejected her request. Buzu was assessed again over a year and a half later, in May 2016. At that time, the magistrate received a “good” rating, which narrowly allowed her to remain in the judiciary.

Ecaterina Buzu is the magistrate who examined the case of the Orhei minor who was raped in December 2014 with the participation of three young people, which scandalised public opinion. In January 2016, only one of the perpetrators, tried for deprivation of liberty and not rape, was sentenced to two years in prison with execution. Two others did not go to court, one of whom was removed from prosecution by the prosecutor.

According to the information in the declaration of assets and personal interests for 2021, Ecaterina Buzu owns a residential house and three plots of land in the village of Peresecina in Orhei district. Last year, Buzu signed an anti-contract of sale-purchase, at a preferential price, of an apartment in a special block built for employees of the judicial system in the districts of Moldova. The market value of the apartment is 1.2 million lei, but the magistrate will pay only 700 thousand lei. Also last year, the judge bought a Volkswagen Passat, manufactured in 2007, for €10 000. Buzu says that in 2021 she took out a loan of 700 thousand lei from Moldindconbank. In 2021, she reported salary income of 247 thousand lei. Another 50 thousand lei she got from the sale of a Renault Megane car, manufactured in 2006, which she had owned since 2013.

A special panel has been set up within the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to examine appeals against the decisions of the Independent Commission for the Evaluation of the Integrity of Candidates for Membership in the Self-Governing Bodies of Judges and Prosecutors.

Thus, the panel that will examine the appeals submitted to the CSJ by magistrates who applied for membership of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) and did not pass the evaluation of the Pre-Vetting Commission is composed as follows: Vladimir Timofti, Ala Cobăneanu and Svetlana Filincova. At the same time, Judge Dumitru Mardari has been appointed as an alternate member of the special trial panel, according to a response of the CSJ to a request for information from Ziarul de Gardă.